Drowning
by HimitsuNoAi
Summary: It's a short  and cute if you ask me story about Ichigo, Rukia, a river and a Hallow.


"Frigging Rukia… where did she go this time? It's already 22:20. What are you up to now?" Ichigo started getting worried.  
Half an hour later  
"Ok, that's it, when I'm gonna find her .." the rest of that sentence he muttered under his breath.  
"Oni-chan where are you going?" asked Yuzu  
"Ahm… out for a walk" answered Ichigo kind of embarrassed  
"So late?" came the next question from Yuzu  
"Well.. it's so nice outside and I ahmm.. " Ichigo was cut off by Yuzu's next remark.  
"It seems as if the storm has already started nii-chan" Yuzu said confused while Karin smirked.  
"Leave him alone, let's so sleep, we do have school tomorrow" said the tomboy.  
"..fine" came a defeated answer from Yuzu.  
"I'm off, don't wait up." And with that he was out of the house.  
"Where did this stupid midget go?" 

In the meantime Rukia was on her way back from Orihimes place where the two women had watched a movie. Rukia thought that it was good that she brought some popcorn with her because the "snacks" that Orihime made were kind of ..well.. typical for her cocking.

All of the sudden she felt a reiastu appear and she ran in the direction of it. When she got near she reached in her pocket to take the soul candy out and realized that it wasn't there. "I forgot it home. That isn't like me at all." She thought. "Well, it doesn't matter; I can defeat it with kido". And so Rukia found the Hallow and she attacked him with Hyapporankan (Hundred Steps Fence) and the Hallow dodged some of them. One pierced his shoulder and it screamed in pain. It attacked aggressively and wildly from every direction and Rukia was hit once with one of his arms and sent flying off the bridge on that she was fighting on. She didn't lose her concentration and spoke the incantation for Sōren Sōkatsui (Twin Lotus Blue Fir) and from her hand came a huge amount of blue energy that hit the Hallow directly and it disappeared into thin air. "Yoshi (= all right) that went well." She was happily.  
"Good .. " and then she hit the stormy water below and the next thought was "Bad…"

Meanwhile Ichigo felt Rukias reiastu go up and he ran in that direction.  
"A hallow! Rukia don't do anything reckless" It took him 5 minutes to get to the place of the fight and he saw Rukia being hit by one of the Hallows arms and was about to change in to a Soul Reaper when the huge blast of energy hit the Hallow and it disappeared. He noticed that Rukia was thrown off from the little bridge where the fight took place and ran as fast as he could to the bridge and jumped in to the uneasy waters.

Rukia's Pov

"This is embarrassing, I can defeat hallows but somehow I can't seem to find my way to the surface."

It was so disorienting. The water is so cold and dark. There was no glimpse of light, no way of guessing which way was up and which way was down?  
I wasn't sure. I could barely move, and I was fighting to keep the air that i had in my lungs, trying not to open my mouth because of the current that was pushing me in every direction. I was sinking. The water was so cold, i could barely move. My legs and arms were getting heavy and numb. I was out of air; my throat opened and silvery bubbles came out. My lungs were burning before because of the lack of oxygen, but now…. my throat, lungs, nose, everything.. burned like they ware on fire because of the water that was flooding my body, and then all bent black.

…

"Rukiaa! Hang in there" and with that Ichigo jumped in the icy water. He could not see her anywhere but that was not necessary, he just fallowed her spirit thread. After he found her and secured a tight grip around her he headed for the river shore. He carried her out of the water and laid her on the grass. She was unconscious.  
"Rukia, wake up!" Ichigo's voice was firm and it sounded like an order. "No good, she's unconscious. Ok…I need to calm down; first things first let's get that water out of your lungs midget. " Ichigo put his palm on Rukia's forehead and carefully tilt the back of her head. He lifted her chin up and bent over her to see if air came out of her nose or mouth, but there was nothing tickling his face, no air movement. He looked at her chest. It wasn't rhythmically rising and falling down; well it didn't move at all. He felt terror flooding his entire being.  
"O noo, Rukia! " he called out to her in despair. He pinched her nostrils with one hand and took a deep breath and sealed her mouth with his soft lips trying to force oxygen in to her lungs. He placed the heel of one hand in the middle of her chest and the other one on top of that hand. He began pushing her ribcage for 30times before giving her another breath of air. Huge amounts of water came out of her mouth regularly.  
"Breathe! Come on Rukia breathe!" but no response.  
He did the whole SPR procedure over and over again.  
"Come on, damit midget breath!" his voice was wild with anxiety. He ordered again "Breath" then his voice become soft and pleading "Come on Rukia, open your eyes and tell me I'm being idiotic, and I shouldn't worry, and show me your crappy drawings so I can tell you that they suck and you can kick me in the gut.." his voice was low and forlorn ".. Just please, please open your eyes. Why du you always have to be this stubborn, come on Rukia, come on, breath again for Gods sake. Breathh!" By the 5 cycle of the CPR procedure her chest began rising on its own.  
"RUKIA!" Ichigo called her name with a wiled voice "can you hear me? …Rukia..!" After a couple of seconds came no response but he calmed down a little because she was breathing normally again "well, at least she's breathing." he thought.  
He slid his arms under her and picked her up without any effort. "Come on Rukia, let's go home, the color of your skin isn't that healthy looking. I better get you dry and warm" he smiled lightly, the concern visible in his eyes and voice.  
They got home pretty quick because Ichigo ran most of the way home. He brought her upstairs and took one of his t-shirts from his closed to dressed Rukia in it. He remembered thinking that this will probably cost him a lot of pain after she is wakes up and is lively and energetic again but just the thought of her being her old self made his heart flutter with joy. So what if she is going to yell at him for an entire day and kick him in the gut every time she gets the chance, that was actually for the time being a nice thought, Rukia being herself, lively, happy and irritable. He took her wet close of and dressed her in one of his pajama t-shirts. He laid her on his bed and draws his blanked to her chin. He went downstairs to get a quilt or something just as worm, so that the temperature of the petit shinigami would get back to normal again. After he found what he was searching for he tugged her in and he pulled his chair beside his bed and watched her sleep. 

Two hours later a soft muttering sound could be heard from the direction of the bed. This immediately caught Ichigo's attention.

"Rukia! Rukia can you hear me?" he asked in a tense voice.  
Rukia struggled to find her voice and after what seemed like forever to Ichigo came her reply. "D…don't shout… you m…moron…" she found it very painful to get the words out.  
"This is just like you, barely awake and already trying to pick a fight with me" he smiled a little. "How are you felling? Dose anything hurt?" he asked worriedly  
"My throat and my lungs feel like their burning, and every breath is painful. Other then that I'm fine" she tried to say it in a steady voice, but it didn't came out the way she had hoped it would.  
"I'm gonna go get you something to drink. Stay here! I mean it, don't move" he said with a harsh voice.  
"What the hell is that supposed to mean? I can do whatever I want and .."  
"Rukia.." he said in a very sweet concerned voice "Stay" he smiled a big smile at her and her cheeks turned slightly red. "I told you before didn't i?" he continued "All your opinions are rejected, so just sit there; I'll be back in a couple of minutes".  
Rukia would have answered back but she was way too tired. In what seemed like a couple of seconds Ichigo was back in his room with some fresh grapefruit juice. He handed her the glass and she took it without hesitation and drank the so much needed liquid. Ichigo smiled as he saw Rukia's eyes sliding shut. She was fighting to maintain consciousness but it was futile. Her eyes fall shut in an instant and she remembered Ichigo sitting down on the bed and then lying next to her. He took her in his arms and petted her head. Rukia smiled lightly and feeling much more comfortable with Ichigo embracing her she was off to dreamland.  
"As long as you are ok…" Ichigos thoughts trailed off as sleep overwhelmed him.

Next morning. 

The sun came through the window and landed on Rukias eyelashes which caused her to wake up. She looked around as the memories of what happened yesterday came back to her. Her thoughts ware interrupted by an all too known voice.  
"Morning. How are you feeling?"  
Rukia blushed a little as she realized that she was so close to Ichigo, and that they slept in the same bed "I'm ok you fool, you do not need to sound so worried" came her reply.  
"Aaa, that's good than. I'm glad you are ok, you scared the hell out of me yesterday" By this time Ichigo was sitting on his bed and looked at her. He made one stiff movement and caught her in an iron embrace.  
"I…chigo.." was all that she managed to say.  
"Never scare me like that again, do you hear me? Never.." his voice was eager and then it became soft almost as if it was breaking "I really thought that this time I lost you for good… I really did.."  
She smiled lightly "Fool, I'm ok...tank you.. Ichigo"  
"That's good .." he said in a calm worm voice and than his tone changed abruptly "THAT MEANS I CAN YELL AT YOU ALL I WANT TO. What the hell were you thinking Rukia? In late autumn you should not go for a swim, that aside that the hell were you doing outside in such a storm you annoying midget"  
"What the hell? I am NOT a midget you gigantic strawberry. Bust because you are abnormally high dose not mean you have a right to comment on m.. "  
"That's not the point. What the hell were you thinking being all alone out there so late at night and coursing me to worry?"  
"I do not need your protection, I can handle myself you know I have done this for al least 9 times longer then you lived!"  
"Ooouu, yea, how could I forget? You old hag have a lot of.."  
"What did you just call me? Care to repeat it?"  
"Aaa, you have trouble hearing? It must be your age" a grin came all over his face, but didn't last long because of the pain he felt after Rukia kicked him strait in the stomach.  
"What was that Kurosaki-kun?" she said in her school girl voice  
"Stop talking like that it's disgusting"  
"My, my, aren't we aggressive this morning"

And so they continued their love quarrel all throughout breakfast and all the way to school, and Ichigo couldn't be happier. The midget was lively again, kicking and screaming and he could enjoy a normal day with her.


End file.
